r 


Illinois  State  Board  of  Health. 


r 


RECOMMENDATIONS  TO  MUNICIPALITIES 

CONCERNING  THE 


SALE  OF  UNDRAWN  POULTRY, 


The  Illinois  State  Board  of  Health,  acting  in  the  interest  of 
the  lives  and  health  of  the  people,  urgently  recommends  to  the 
mayors  and  councils  of  all  cities  and  the  presidents  and  hoards 
of  trustees  of  all  villages,  and  to  the  health  officials  in  all  parts 
of  the  state,  the  enactment  and  enforcement  of  ordinances  pro- 
hibiting the  sale  of  poultry,  fish,  game,  or  any  animal  used  for 
food  which  have  not  been  properly  drawn  and  cleaned  at  the 
time  of  slaughtering. 

The  necessity  for  such  ordinances  and  their  enforcement  is 
plainly  indicated  by  the  rapidly  growing  custom  of  storing 
poultry,  fish  and  game  containing  the  entrails  and  other  viscera, 
and  offering  them  for  sale  long  periods  of  time'  after  being 
killed,  and  the  danger  to  the  public  health  caused  by  this  cus- 
tom. 

It  is  known  to  all  physicians  and  physiologists  that  there 
are  generated  in  the  body  of  any  animal  poisons  of  the  highest 
degree  of  toxicity.  The  intestines  and  other  digestive  organs 
contain  at  all  times  materials  which  have  undergone  putrefac- 
tive changes.  If  this  material  be  permitted  to  remain  in  the 
body  after  death,  the  poisons  generated  may  infiltrate  the  en- 
tire flesh,  making  it  dangerous  to  the  person  who  eats  it.  The 
body  in  which  the  viscera  are  permitted  to  remain  undergoes 
decomposition  much  more  rapidly  than  when  such  viscera  have 
been  removed.  Decomposition  is  further  hastened  by  leaving 
the  blood  in  the  vessels  of  the  body. 


On  this  point  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  in  Bul- 
letin No.  144,  speaks  as  follows : 

“ Under  precisely  the  same  conditions  of  temperature  and 
humidity,  drawn  fowls  will  keep  from  twenty  to  thirty  days 
longer  than  those  not  drawn.  The  presence  of  undigested 
food  and  of  excrementitious  substances  in  animals  which  have 
been  killed  most  certainly  favors  the  tainting  of  the  flesh  and 
general  decomposition.  The  viscera  are  the  first  parts  to  show 
putrescence,  and  allowing  these  to  remain  within  the  body  can- 
not do  otherwise  than  favor  infection  of  the  flesh  with  bacteria 
and  ptomaines,  even  if  osmosis  does  not  actually  carry  putrid 
juices  to  contiguous  tissues.  Hunters  know  the  value  of  draw- 
ing birds  as  soon  as  possible  after  they  have  been  shot  ,in  order 
to  keep  them  fresh  and  sweet  and  to  prevent  their  having  a 
strong  intestinal  flavor.  ” 

It  has  become  a custom  among  wholesale  poulterers  and 
packers  to  purchase  poultry  during  the  early  summer,  when  the 
prices  are  lowest,  and  to  keep  them  in  cold  storage  until  winter, 
or  until  prices  are  at  the  highest.  Such  fowls  are  killed  with- 
out thorough  bleeding,  often  plucked  before  death,  and  placed 
in  cold  storage,  without  removing  the  entrails  and  other  viscera. 
Frequently  they  are  not  offered  for  sale  until  many  months 
after  killing. 

The  process  of  decomposition  and  putrefaction  begins  at 
once  after  the  death  of  the  animal.  Cold  storage  and  freezing 
may  limit  the  rotting  process,  but  do  not  entirely  stop  it.  When 
poultry  cr  animals  are  taken  from  cold  storage  and  aie  thawed 
out  for  exhibition  and  sale,  the  decomposition  continues  with 
marked  energy,  impregnating  the  flesh  with  poisons — and  this 
decomposition  is  exceedingly  rapid  even  when  the  poultry  is 
kept  in  the  market  or  grocery  refrigerator,  the  temperature  of 
which  is  much  higher  than  that  of  the  cold  storage  warehouse. 
Flesh  in  which  the  blood  has  been  permitted  to  remain  is  par- 
ticulary  susceptible  to  such  decomposition,  and  this  suscepti- 
bility is  increased  by  the  long  period  of  freezing  and  thawing. 


Even  with  poultry  which  is  “ freshly  killed’ ’ there  is  fre- 
quently a period  of  several  days  between  the  time  of  slaughtering 
and  sale.  Not  only  is  it  dangerous,  but  it  is  repugnant  to  our 
sense  of  decency,  that  the  flesh  we  are  to  eat  shall  lie  for  several 
days  in  close  contact  with  putrefying  animal  matter. 

Undoubtedly  undrawn  poultry,  fish  and  game  have  caused 
many  cases  of  poisoning  which  have  been  wrongly  attributed  to 
other  sources.  The  poisoning  resulting  often  resembles  that 
caused  by  other  poisons  administered  by  persons  or  taken  with 
suicidal  intent.  Many  sufferers  from  digestive  troubles — head- 
ache, nausea,  colic  and  diarrhea  after  eating,  owe  their  ailments 
to  tainted  foods. 

We  are  advised  that  the  reason  for  slaughtering  poultry 
without  thorough  bleeding  is  the  saving  in  the  weight  of  the 
fowl,  and  this  reason  is  doubtless  also  one  for  the  storing  of 
(/I  poultry  and  offering  it  for  sale  without  removing  the  viscera. 
y,  There  is,  however,  no  reason  why  the  consumer  should  be  com- 
^ pelled  to  purchase  a large  percentage  of  excreta,  offal  and 
^ refuse  with  his  poultry.  We  would  not  tolerate  the  addition  of 
? ^ a certain  percentage  of  weight  in  the  form  of  entrails  of  the 
P?  steer  with  each  beefsteak  we  buy.  The  consumer  purposes  to 
buy  edible  food  and  not  the  disgusting  waste  which  should  be 
eliminated  in  the  process  of  slaughtering  and  dressing.  It  is 
just  as  reasonable  to  ask  the  consumer  to  buy  hogs,  calves  and 
f lafnbs  without  the  intestines  removed,  as  to  solicit  his  purchase 
of  undrawn  turkeys  and  chickens. 

The  protection  of  the  people  of  a municipality  from 

1 1) 

• these  dangerous  and  repulsive  foods  lies  within  the  juris- 
l diction  of  its  own  officials.  The  State  Board  of  Health  conse- 
t - quently  urges  that  such  ordinances  covering  this  subject  shall 
H be  enacted  as  will  give  to  the  people  the  degree  of  protection 
ns'  to  which  they  are  entitled. 

Not  only  should  proper  ordinances  be  enacted  and  en- 
forced, hut  the  people  should  also  be  advised  to  carefully  in- 


3 


2 105540584 


4 * 

spect  the  fowls  the;y  buy,  and  take  none  which  have  been  kept 
in  storage  with  the  entrails  unremoved. 

The  following  ordinance,  if  properly  enforced,  will  prove 
effective : 

Section  I. — It  shall  be  unlawful  for  any  person,  firm  or  cor- 
poration, within  the  limits  of  the  city  (or  village)  of , 

to  sell,  offer  or  expose  for  sale,  any  animal,  used  for  food  pur- 
poses, refrigerated  or  otherwise,  which  has  not  been  properly 
drawn  and  prepared  by  removing  the  viscera  (bowels-entrails) 
at  the  time  of  slaughter. 

Section  2. — Any  persons,  firm  or  corporation,  violating  any 
of  the  provisions  of  this  ordinance  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a 
misdemeanor,  and  upon  conviction  thereof,  shall  be  punished  by 
a fine  not  exceeding  one  hundred  dollars  or  by  imprisonment  in 
the  city  (or  village)  prison  not  to  exceed  thirty  days,  or  by  both 
such  fine  and  imprisonment. 

There  is  no  doubt  as  to  the  validity  of  such  an  ordinance, 
or  the  power  of  a municipality  to  enforce  it.  Under  the  pro- 
visions of  section  62,  chapter  24,  of  the  Revised  Statutes,  coun- 
cils of  cities  and  trustees  of  villages  are  given  almost  absolute 
and  unrestrained  control  of  the  agencies  affecting  the  public 
health.  In  connection  with  this  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois, 
in  the  case  of  Mason  et  al.  vs.  the  City  of  Shawneetown,  77  111., 
533,  says: 

“When  an  incorporated  town  or  city  has  been  invested 
with  power  to  pass  an  ordinance,  by  the  legislature,  for  the  gov- 
ernment or  welfare  of  the  municipality,  an  ordinance  enacted 
by  the  legislative  branch  of  the  corporation  in  pursuance  of  an 
act  creating  the  corporation,  has  the  same  force  and  effect  of  a 
law  passed  by  the  legislature,  and  cannot  be  regarded  other- 
wise than  as  a law  of  and  within  the  corporation.  An  ordinance 
is  the  law  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  municipality.  ’ ’ 

Published  by  order  of  the  State  Board  of  Health. 

“JAMES  A.  EGAN,  M.  D., 

Feb.  7,  1906.  Secretary.” 


